Similarities Between Sigmund Freud And The Super-Ego

Freud and the Super-ego Our conscience is what separates us from animals. The ability to discern right from wrong and feel remorse manifests specifically in humankind. Sigmund Freud believed that our conscience, or “super-ego” as he referred to it, came from society’s initial rebellion against authority. Freud’s belief was that humans lived in an ape-like society with a dominant male presiding over everyone else. This male, referred to as the Primal Father by Freud, was inevitably killed by his sons due to his unfair leadership over them. According to Freud, the sons internalized their father’s authority over themselves that was now missing. This established what we now know as the conscience. Freud does not explain much about how females …show more content…
The collective super-ego clashes with man’s internal super-ego because each individual has different standards of right and wrong. Reinhold Niebuhr speaks of the flaws in society’s super-ego in his book Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics when he writes, “The inferiority of the morality of groups to that of individuals is due in part to the difficulty of establishing a rational social force which is powerful enough to cope with the natural impulses by which society achieves its cohesion…” He means that in order for society to produce a successful collective super-ego, it must first be able to understand and accept different ideals. The collective super-ego of society usually operates under the common beliefs of the majority or those in power, but not everyone has the same system of morality. One man’s own super-ego may conflict with the collective super-ego not because he is necessarily wrong, but because the collective super-ego deems him to be. Niebuhr also discusses the overwhelming power of the majority when he states, “…but in part it is merely the revelation of a collective egoism, compounded of the egotistic impulses of individuals which achieve a more vivid expression and a more cumulative effect when they are united in a common impulse than when they express themselves separately and discreetly.” Individuals whose scruples differ from popular beliefs will be seen as immoral and feel the wrath of the collective super-ego. Society must come to terms with the fact that not everyone shares one standard set of moral values. Until this becomes a reality, society’s collective super-ego will cause the outspoken minority of the population